Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Making Progress, Meeting Goals, Maintaining Sanity

Photo by Elise VanCise 2013

Last week saw a few large steps of progress and a couple of standstills due to yet another fine dose of LIFE hitting the fan. Yet some how sanity is being maintained… maybe… possibly.


The key to goal making success is not letting those derailments actually derail your progress. The train tends to go off the tracks once in a while. While frustrating it could be a good thing. Those derailments allow us to step back and reevaluate the situation and our goals.

Perhaps a goal made needs to be adjusted or even set aside. Is it something that you are struggling with more often than not? Is it something you’re flying through and not challenging enough? There are many reasons a goal needs to be tweaked, take a quiet moment and list your goals and what you can do to either make it easier or more challenging to fit your needs.

Goals should challenge us but not be an added stress. If you have a goal that has been a struggle to meet or come close to, drop it. At least for a week, then come back and reexamine that goal. Ask questions. Do you really need this goal? Is it going to help you meet other goals? How beneficial is this goal going to be overall?

If you feel that the answer to these are yes then make some adjustments to the goal to ease the stress and get back on track chugging to success. Sometimes just that short break of taking a week or two off from a goal is enough to fire up the engine and you’re ready to go full steam ahead.

Keep shoveling coal in that furnace and we'll make it over the peak. See you on the other side of Goal Mountain J

Goal Update for ROW80 Round 2 Week 2
1. Catch up and post daily for A to Z  Big check I did get caught up… as you can see I fell a bit behind again though thanks to that Curveball of LIFE.
2. Make daily word count for Camp NaNo (650 Words) *pouts didn’t get there daily had some days with no writing. Yeah that curveball thing.
3. Finish class YES!!! One class down with a final grade of 93%
4. Work 20 minutes 3x a week on the black hole of clothes and junk closet. Nope that dang LIFE thing again.  Doesn’t it ever take a vacation?

New Goals for Round2 Week 3
1. Yup Catching up again with A to Z and maintaining it
2. Get in word count for NaNo
3. Get at least half a chapter of work a day in class
4. Nixing this one for now so this LIFE thing can do its thing and move out. I’m closing the Cave of Wow I haven’t seen this in years Closet door and pretending it’s not there this week.

How do you keep your goal train chugging down the track? How do you deal with being derailed? 

This post is also part of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge for the letter M

6 comments:

  1. LOL I generally take a nap. I don't believe there's anything in life worth giving up for.

    Nice to see you're still at it, Elise. Great post!

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  2. That thing you said about life interfering and needing to re-evaluate goals? Yeah, spot on. Sometimes I call it a good day if I get anything done, because I have a terrible habit of giving up altogether when derailed.

    Great post! Wishing you the best on your goals this week!

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  3. As an archaeologist, I'm all for leaving the Cave of Oh My God I Haven't Seen That for Years, because if you leave it long enough, it will become 'historic', and people will dig it out for you!

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  4. good post on re-considering goals and adjustments - sorry you had a life strewn week although of course life is important:)

    I would go under the duvet if life got too much but I guess retitred old ladies have that oppotunity:)All the best for rest of week

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  5. Elise,

    Early this morning, as I was just about ready to schedule a blogpost, my Internet went out, and took the cable with it.

    No posting; no background Adam-12 or PBS.

    Bummer. I couldn't even access that nascent scene I wanted to move from 750 Words.com to my Srivener files...

    So, I looked over my current projects list (in a notebook - having low-tech options helps!), and decided to move ahead on a few things I could do without the Internet -moving chapters of another novel into a brand new Scrivener project file, working on a different scene still on my 750 words screen, and therefore copy-and-pastable...a bit more planning, a little loose-end tying...

    For me, having lots of options of different tyes means that I can usually find itty-bitty steps that work with that capricious life thing (I'm the mom of two homeschooled kids, and we have 6 critters, so life can get capricious, indeed, here!).

    At times like this, any forward momentum is good...

    Ans now, I'm off - not to write, but to take my kids out on a Journey Through the Body - a local event that we try to attend each year. I won't write as much, today, but I will be taking pictures for a blogpost or three, and refilling, and connecting, and learning -

    And all those count, too, even if they aren't on my goals list!

    This was a lovely post,and I hope that life throws less tricky balls at you in the coming weeks!

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  6. Congrats on goals achieved. And Amen to readjusting and setting aside goals as needed. We have to keep the Big Picture in mind. All the best as you fire up the engine and head into next week.

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